Early History of the Vaishnava Faith and Movement in Bengal, from Sanskrit and Bengali Sources c7.s1.10

c7.s1.10

they consumed all his energies. Questions of social or ethical import, the welfare of society, seldom impinge upon his ecstatic consciousness; nor does intellectual consideration guide his practice. Although Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja would make an attempt to figure Caitanya as a subtle logician, he would also admit to Caitanya's life of 'divine madness' in later years. The other biographical records, however, clearly indicate that as days went Caitanya's life became marked by progressive nervous instability; and in proportion to the excess of frenzied emotional there was steady deterioration of his intellectual gifts. It is not surprising, therefore, that Caitanyaism itself, which was inspired by and modelled on Caitanya's life, there is a great deal of intellectual subtlety, but intellectual virility is never a marked feature.